Field Guide — the Tides & Tails user manual

How to run every feature on Tides & Tails: short steps, plain words, written to be read with wet hands. Each chapter links straight to the page it explains. Looking for a page rather than an instruction? The site map lists all of them.

Chapters

• Start Here: How this site works
• Live Conditions: My Waters Console, Coastal Map, Trips, Zone pages, My Spots
• Fish Smarter: Species Guides, Smart Lure Tool, Lure & Bait Database
• On the Water: Marine VHF Radio, Fishing Regulations, License Wallet, Safety checklists & Float Plan, Navigation basics
• Community: Community Forum, Announcements & Articles, Crew, Local Pro Anglers
• For Business: Charters, Marketplace & Listings, Your lead board (for businesses)
• Account: Your account & sync

Start Here

How this site works

Tides & Tails is built for wet hands and bright sun: every daily job is one or two taps away, choices are buttons and dropdowns instead of typing, and the reference pages keep working when the signal drops.

How to get around

• The top bar holds every page; on the phone, the menu button opens the full flat list — nothing is buried.
• The quick bar pinned to the bottom of the phone screen jumps straight to the daily jobs.
• Lost? Open the Site Map (footer, or /site-map) — every page, grouped and one tap away.
• Anything called "My …" (My Waters, My Spots) is saved on the device in your hand, and syncs to your account when you sign in.

Good to know

• No account is required for the daily jobs — the console, the map and your spot book all work anonymously, saved on this device.
• A free account adds sync: the same waters and spots on every device you fish from.
• Live readings come from NOAA tide stations, Open-Meteo weather and NWS alerts — when a source is down, the page says so instead of showing stale numbers as fresh.

Live Conditions

My Waters Console

Your command center: one live card per water you fish — water temp, wind with gusts, the next tide and any active weather alerts — so the go/no-go call takes one glance.

Open the page: /console

How to build your console

• Open My Waters (/console). First visit shows the covered fisheries — tap the ones you fish to save them.
• Each saved water gets a live card: water temp (°F), wind + gusts, and the next high or low tide with its time.
• Severity-coded alert chips (Small Craft Advisory, Gale, thunderstorm, rip current …) appear on a card when the NWS has something active — tap a chip to expand the details inline.
• Check the "as of" stamp, and tap the refresh button to pull fresh readings on demand (it skips the cache).
• Tap a water’s name to open its full zone page; tap the × to drop it from the console.
• Fish one water most of the time? Tap "Set home" beside its name. That is the water the console opens on a brand-new phone or after you clear your data, and tapping it switches you there on the spot. Tap it again to unpin.

Good to know

• One station failing never blanks the page — that card shows "live data unavailable" with its own Retry button.
• Current weather refreshes every 10 minutes on its own; alerts every 5. The refresh button forces both immediately.
• "Cached — last known readings" on a card means you are seeing the last successful fetch, not live data.
• Your saved waters live on this device and sync to your account when you sign in.
• Signing out doesn’t reset your water. The console opens on the same water when you come back — that’s a place preference, not private data. Your GPS spots are wiped from the device on sign-out and kept safe on your account.

Coastal Map

A touch-first nautical chart (Esri Ocean base + OpenSeaMap seamarks) covering the whole coast. Copper pins are covered fishing zones; anywhere else is fair game for marking your own spot.

Open the page: /map

How to use the map

• Open the Map (/map) and it lands on the water you’re working, with nothing on top of it — the chart never opens a card over the water for you.
• Pinch and drag like any chart — depth shading and seamarks are on the base layer.
• Tap a copper pin to pop a zone card: what’s biting and a link through to the full zone page. Tap anywhere off the card to close it again.
• Tap open water (not a pin) to mark a private spot: name it, add a note, save.
• Your saved spots show as their own markers — tap one to review or jump to My Spots.

How to find a ramp, a slip or fuel

• The anchor button in the stack down the right side turns the on-the-water places on and off — marinas, boat ramps, fuel docks, and the places you can tie up to and eat. It starts on and remembers what you set it to.
• Zoom in on the water you're headed for. Zoomed way out the marks stay off on purpose, so the Gulf isn't a wall of dots — the legend tells you when that's why you can't see them.
• Tap a mark for the name, the address and hours if we have them, a Directions button that hands the trip to your phone's own map app, and a Call button that dials.
• Copper marks are featured listings — a marina paying to stand out — and they're the only ones that carry a line about themselves.

How to track your trip

• Tap the track button (the arrow with a dashed wake) in the button stack and allow location — your boat appears as a bright arrow pointing the way you’re heading.
• Run the boat: a copper line lays down behind you, and the readout keeps your miles run, time out and speed in knots.
• The chart follows the boat until you drag or zoom it; tap Re-centre to lock back on.
• On a phone, tap "Trip options" in the readout for Save trip and Clear trail; on a bigger screen they’re always showing.
• Tap Save trip when you get back in. Signed in and in signal, the panel says "Saved to your account" and the trip is safe off the phone; out of signal it says "Saved on this phone" and uploads itself the next time you open Trips with a bar of service.
• Tap the track button again to stop. The line and your trip stay put until you clear them, and a reload mid-day picks up where you left off.

• Spots you mark are private — stored on this device (and your account when signed in), never shown to other anglers.
• Your track is private too: nothing is shared with other anglers. Saved trips ride on your own account so a lost phone doesn’t cost you the season — see the Trips chapter.
• Tracking keeps the GPS running, so it uses battery. It lets the GPS go while the tab sits in the background and picks back up when you return — a browser tab can’t track with the app closed.
• The legend under the ? button explains every marker style on the chart.

Trips

Every trip you save from the map, kept on your account instead of on one phone: the line you ran on a chart, the miles, hours and speed the run worked out to, and every fish you logged while the boat was out.

Open the page: /trips

How to keep a trip

• Track the run on the Map, then tap Save trip — the trip is named for the day and time it started, and you can rename it later.
• Open Trips (/trips) to see the whole history, newest first, grouped by month with your miles and hours for each.
• Tap a trip to open it: the full track on a chart with start and end markers, the numbers underneath, and pins for every catch logged during that trip.
• Rename it for the water you fished, add a note about the tide or the bite, or delete it — all from the trip’s own page.

Good to know

• Trips live on your account, so they follow you to a new phone — lose the handset, keep the season.
• Save works with no signal: the trip is held on the phone and marked "Saved on this phone", then uploads itself the next time you open Trips in service. The Trips page tells you how many are still waiting.
• Catches attach themselves — anything you logged in the Catch Log between the trip’s start and end shows up on the trip, no linking to do.
• A trip is yours alone. Crew mates never see your tracks, and nothing about a trip is public.

Heads up: Saving needs an account. Track without signing in and the trip is held on the phone only — create a free account and it uploads with everything else you have stored on the device.

Zone pages

Every covered fishery from the Texas–Mexico border around to Maryland, plus the California outposts — each zone with live tides from its own NOAA station, seasonal species and local knowledge.

Open the page: /locations

How to read a zone page

• Open Locations (/locations) — zones are grouped by region, ordered like a trip along the coast. Tap one.
• The top of the page is live: water temp, wind and the tide table from the zone’s NOAA station, plus any active weather alert chips.
• Scroll for the seasonal playbook: which species show up spring / summer / fall / winter, and what’s biting now.
• Towns & launches list the real ramps and communities inside the zone.
• Tap the NOAA chart link to open the official ENC nautical chart for the zone.
• Tap "Save to My Waters" to pin the zone to your console.

My Spots

Your private spot book. Mark a spot two ways — tap the map, or stamp your live GPS position from the boat — then keep notes on what bit there.

Open the page: /my-spots

How to mark a spot from the boat

• Open My Spots (/my-spots) and tap "Mark my current location" — allow location access when the phone asks.
• When the GPS fix locks, you’ll see the coordinates. Name the spot (e.g. "Grass point east of marker 12").
• Add a note — what bit, on which tide, on what — and tap Save.
• Back at the dock: tap any spot to edit its name and note inline, or delete it.

Offline & privacy

• Spots are stored on this device and readable with zero signal — the spot book works offshore.
• Signed in, every spot also syncs to your account; the first sign-in on a device merges its local spots in instead of overwriting them.
• Signing out clears the device copy (so a borrowed phone doesn’t keep your spot book) — your account keeps everything.

Fish Smarter

Species Guides

26 species — Gulf/Atlantic inshore, West Coast saltwater and Western-lakes freshwater, speckled trout and redfish first — with the numbers that matter: preferred water temps, seasonal baits and the zones where each one shows up.

Open the page: /species

How to use a species guide

• Open Species (/species) and tap a fish.
• Check the temperature band against today’s water temp from your console — inside the band means the fish is comfortable and feeding.
• Use the season row of the bait table for what to throw this month.
• The "where they’re biting" list links straight to the zone pages.

Smart Lure Tool

"What should I throw right now?" — pick your water, let the tool read live water temp, wind, clouds and light, and get a ranked list of lures and baits that fit the moment.

Open the page: /tool

How to get a pick

• Open the Lure Tool (/tool). Step 1: pick a water — your saved My Waters are offered first, or use GPS for the nearest zone.
• Step 2: the tool pulls the live read — water temp, wind, cloud cover, light level and moon phase.
• Step 3: read the ranked picks, matched from the 56-lure database.
• Conditions look wrong from where you’re standing? Tap the override chips (season, sky, light) — the list re-ranks instantly without refetching.

Lure & Bait Database

The full box: 56 proven lures and baits — Gulf/Atlantic inshore, West Coast saltwater and Western-lakes freshwater — each tagged by species, season, water clarity, light and region. Browse it when you’re rigging the night before.

Open the page: /lures

How to filter it down

• Open Lures & Bait (/lures).
• Tap filter chips — target species, season, light, water clarity, your coast — in any combination.
• Each card tells you when the lure earns its slot and how to work it.

On the Water

Marine VHF Radio

The channels that matter to a US recreational boat, how to hail another vessel without embarrassing yourself, and the emergency scripts — MAYDAY, PAN-PAN, SÉCURITÉ — word for word.

Open the page: /radio

How to make a routine call

• Read the channel table first — 16 is hailing and distress only; move working chatter off it.
• Follow the routine call steps: name the station you’re calling twice, then your boat name, then "over".
• Agree on a working channel, switch, talk, and end with "out".
• Do a radio check on an open working channel — not on 16.

Heads up: The emergency cards (MAYDAY for life-threatening distress, PAN-PAN for urgency, SÉCURITÉ for safety broadcasts) are written to be read aloud under stress — practice them at the dock, not for the first time when it counts.

Fishing Regulations

Bag and size limits for the headline inshore species in FL, TX, NC, MD and CA — verified from the official state agencies, dated, and readable offline at the cleaning table.

Open the page: /regulations

How to check a limit

• Open Regulations (/regulations) and tap your state chip — the page remembers your pick.
• Find the species card: size slot, bag limit and season, with the "verified" date on every card.
• A chartreuse chip on a card flags a fresh rule change — read it before you keep a fish.
• When it matters (tournaments, gray areas), tap through to the official agency source linked on the page.

Heads up: Regulations change mid-season. The page tells you when each rule was last verified — the official state source is always the final word.

License Wallet

A photo of your fishing license, stored on your phone and readable offline — plus each covered state’s official digital-license app and renewal portal.

Open the page: /license

How to stow your license

• Open the License Wallet (/license) and pick your state.
• Snap or upload a photo of your license — it’s downscaled and saved on this device only.
• At check time, open the wallet: the photo displays with zero signal.
• Renewing? Use the official state app / renewal links on the same page, then replace the photo.

• License photos never leave your phone — they are not uploaded to our servers, by design.
• Some states require the official digital app or paper license to count legally — the wallet is your fast backup, the state links tell you what’s valid where.

Safety checklists & Float Plan

Three tools on one page: the equipment the law requires for your boat and your state, a pre-launch ritual that catches the classic mistakes, and a float plan you text to someone ashore.

Open the page: /safety

How to run the checklists

• Open Safety (/safety). Set your state, boat length, people aboard (stepper) and whether you run a gas inboard.
• Work the federal USCG list, then the copper-flagged state additions below it — both are tap-to-check, 44px targets for wet thumbs.
• Run the pre-launch ritual in the same order every time — plug, straps, vent, kill switch.
• Checks save per state + boat combo; tap "Reset for next trip" at the ramp.

How to file a float plan

• Fill the float plan card once — boat description, crew names, destination, return time. It prefills next trip.
• Tap "Use my GPS" at the ramp to stamp your exact launch coordinates (the page also shows the nearest covered water).
• Read the composed message, then tap "Text my float plan" to send it to someone ashore — or copy it into any app.
• When plans change on the water, text the update. When you’re back, text that too — a float plan only works if it gets closed out.

Heads up: The float plan is NOT an emergency beacon. It goes only to the person you text — nothing is stored on our servers, nobody is watching the clock, and there is no automatic overdue alert. If you don’t come back, the person holding your plan is the one who calls for help. For real distress on the water: VHF channel 16, MAYDAY.

Navigation basics

How to read US channel markers running in and out of the bay: red right returning, nuns vs cans, ICW yellow marks, junction marks, regulatory buoys and the diver-down flag.

Open the page: /navigation

How to run a channel you don’t know

• Returning from open water: keep red markers on your RIGHT ("red right returning"), green on your left.
• Marker numbers increase as you head in from sea — falling numbers mean you’re headed out.
• On the ICW, ignore your instinct and follow the small yellow squares (treat as green) and triangles (treat as red).
• White regulatory buoys mean slow down and read — and give any diver-down flag a wide berth.

Community

Community Forum

Fishing reports, tactics and gear talk, organized by board and filterable by region and species — read where the bite is before you burn the gas.

Open the page: /forum

How to find a report

• Open the Forum (/forum) and pick a board.
• Use the region and species filter chips to cut the list to your water.
• Tap a thread to expand it.

Heads up: Honest note: the forum currently shows sample threads — posting and replies go live with the community system. The compose form is there to try, but nothing publishes yet.

Announcements & Articles

Announcements carry agency regulation updates and club news; Articles & Resources hold the longer-form guides — boats, kayak rigging, nearshore tactics, seasonal strategy.

Open the page: /announcements

How to stay current

• Skim Announcements (/announcements) when you haven’t been on the site in a while — regulation updates land there first.
• Browse Articles (/articles) for the sit-down reads; each shows its category and when it was last updated.

Heads up: Announcement comments and alert subscriptions are demo-marked until the community system activates.

Crew

Private, invite-only groups for the people you actually fish with — your family, or the boats you run with. Chat freely, and only if each person switches it on, see each other on a live chart that expires by itself.

Open the page: /crew

How to start a crew

• Sign in (crews are tied to your account), then open Crew (/crew).
• Under "Start a crew", name it — e.g. "The Carters" — and tap Create.
• Read the six-character invite code out to your people, or tap Share to send it. There is no directory: the code is the only way in.
• Anyone with the code opens /crew, types it under "Join with a code", and they’re in.

How to share your position (and stop)

• Open the crew and find the sharing switch. It is off until you turn it on — every crew, every time.
• Pick how long: 1, 4 or 8 hours. The panel then says in plain words when it stops.
• Your position updates while the app is open; it pauses when you switch away and picks back up when you return.
• Tap "Stop sharing" any time — it takes effect on your phone immediately, and your position leaves the crew chart.

What the crew can and can’t see

• Sharing shows where you are right now — no trail, no history of where you’ve been.
• When your window runs out, sharing ends on its own; nobody has to remember to switch it off.
• Messages can carry your position on purpose: tap the pin next to the composer and the message drops a fix your crew can tap to see on the chart.
• Crews are private. No search, no directory, no way in but the code — and the captain can remove the crew entirely.

Heads up: Crew sharing is a convenience, not a safety system. In an emergency use VHF channel 16 and the red “I need help” beacon on the map — see the Safety chapter.

Local Pro Anglers

Pages written by local guides on the waters we cover: the gear they actually throw, notes on their area, and reports from trips they ran. We invite the anglers; they write their own pages, and the words on them are theirs.

Open the page: /anglers

How to read a pro page

• Open Local Pro Anglers (/anglers) for the directory — each card shows the angler, the water they fish and how recently they posted.
• Filter to one water to see only the pros who fish it; the address updates, so you can bookmark or share that filtered list.
• Tap a name for the full page: their bio, photos, area notes, gear picks and recent reports.
• A gear pick links out to wherever that lure or rod is actually sold — you check out on the seller's own store, not here.

How to run your own page (invited anglers)

• We create the page and send the invite to your email address. Sign in with that same address and open My Pro Page (/my-page) — the claim is waiting for you.
• Write it section by section: headline and bio, area notes, gear picks, photos, reports. Each section saves on its own, so a dropped signal at the ramp never costs you a whole page of typing.
• Publish lights up once you have a headline or bio plus at least one photo. Until then the screen tells you which of the two is still missing instead of letting you press it and get refused.
• Post a report whenever you fish: what you found, what it hit, and the conditions. Recent reports are what keeps your page near the top of the directory.

Good to know

• Your words are yours. Nobody here rewrites your bio, your captions or your reports.
• We can hide a single photo or report that breaks the rules, and we can take a whole page off the site. Either way you see that it happened and who did it — nothing disappears on you quietly.
• A page that has been taken down can only be put back by us, not from your editor.
• Photos are checked on your phone before they upload, so an oversized shot fails straight away instead of after a long wait on a weak signal.
• You are an independent guide we invited, not an employee — the page is a listing, and it carries your own contact details.

For Business

Charters, Marketplace & Listings

The business side: a charter & guide directory in four service categories — with trip packages, rates and trust badges on every listing — a gear marketplace, and membership tiers for captains and vendors who want in.

Open the page: /charters

How to find and book a trip

• Charters (/charters): browse by category — certified captains, bareboat & kayak rentals, guides for hire, rental gear — or filter to your water.
• Read the badges before the copy: Verified means license and insurance are on file with us, Responds Fast means inquiries get answered within a day, Featured is a paid placement and is labeled as one.
• Tap a profile for trip and rental packages — length, rate, group size, boat specs and an exact what's-included checklist — so you can compare boats like-for-like.
• Found the one? Use Request info on the profile: pick a package, your preferred date and party size, and the business gets your inquiry directly. No payment is taken on the site — you settle the trip with the captain.

How to buy and sell gear

• Marketplace (/marketplace): filter gear by category and condition, then message the seller.
• Run a business? Pricing (/pricing) lists the tiers; List Your Business (/charters/join) is the application.
• Make lures or run a tackle shop? Listing is free and always will be (/vendors/join) — no monthly fee and no cut of your sale. We bill $0.75 when an angler taps through to your store, and nothing at all until those taps pass $25.
• Would rather not be metered? The flat option is $49/mo per location — one shop address, or one coastal region for a brand that ships — and covers 100 taps a month per location. Three or more locations, statewide or national is quoted instead of listed.

Heads up: The Request info form on listings is live — it reaches the business's lead board. Demo-marked forms (business applications, pricing interest, seller messages) still point at [email protected] until payments and messaging launch.

Your lead board (for businesses)

Run a charter, rental or guide service listed here? Every Request info an angler sends on your listing lands on your lead board — the trip they asked about, their preferred date and party size. Joining is free; an active membership unlocks the angler's contact details so you can close the trip.

Open the page: /dashboard/leads

How to work your leads

• Sign in and open My Lead Board (/dashboard/leads) — new inquiries sit on top, each with the requested package, date and party size.
• On a free account the trip details are all there but the angler's email and phone stay masked — activate a membership and every lead on your board unlocks, past and future.
• Mark a lead responded once you've reached out. Answering inside a day earns your listing the Responds Fast badge; going quiet loses it.
• Membership is activated by us, not by a card form — reply to the pricing email or write [email protected] and we switch it on.

Good to know

• Leads only flow to a claimed listing — if your business is in the directory but you haven't joined, the inquiries wait for you.
• The Verified badge is earned, not bought: send your license and insurance and we flag the listing. Featured placement is the paid slot and is always labeled.

Account

Your account & sync

Everything works without an account — the account’s one job is sync: the same My Waters console and My Spots book on every device you fish from.

Open the page: /register

How to set up sync

• Create a free account (/register) — or sign in (/login) on a new device.
• First sign-in on a device that already holds local waters/spots: that data is merged into your account, nothing is overwritten.
• From then on the account is the source of truth — save a spot on the phone, see it on the tablet.
• Sign out when you’re done on a shared device: your GPS spots and trips are wiped off the device and kept on your account. The water the console was set to stays, because the next person seeing which bay you had open tells them nothing about you.

• Forgot your password? The sign-in page has an email reset flow.
• Your profile (/profile) holds your display name and password.
• License photos are the exception to sync — they stay on-device on purpose (offline feature).